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Questions & Answers about
Landlord
Liability for Mould Problems
[June 15, 2003]
Q. Are you aware of any state or environmental laws that require office buildings
to be mould free? We have recently moved back into our downtown office after the
tornadoes that came thru Jackson, TN. last month.
A. There are no federal or state environmental laws
that require an office building, home, or any other building to
be mould-free. Landlords do often have a state law legal
obligation to provide habitable housing to their tenants. Your
attorney can probably make a similar argument as to office
buildings, that the landlord owes an obligation to provide
safe environmentally-safe office space to tenants. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and most state EPA agencies
consider serious mould infestation in the work place to be an EPA
health and safety violation
by an employer.
[June 12, 2003]
Q. My family and I have been renting a 3 bedroom townhome/apartment for about 5
months now When we first moved in, I noticed that there was a foul, moldy odor
under the kitchen cabinets, primarily where the sink is. Sometimes the
smell is so strong, that you can smell it upon entering the kitchen/dining room
area. The landlord and I looked at it upon moving in, and she did say that the
pipes had been leaking previously, and that she had someone to look at it before
to fix the problem. We noticed that the pipes underneath still
leaked. When I looked closely under the cabinets, I saw patches of black spots
closely together, that looked like mould. We contacted the landlord again
several months later, and she sent someone out. He then replaced a rubber
ring under the sink, however said that he could do nothing about the mould,
except to put lime on it!!??? I have become so annoyed with the smell and the
problem, that I don't even want to go into my kitchen anymore. I have just
started looking up information on black mould on the internet, and I am alarmed
by what I am finding out! I did not know that this could be potentially
dangerous to my family and I. My question is, does the mould that I have
described to you sound like toxic black mould, and if so, what should we do about
this problem, and our landlords non-caring attitude about it?
A. Take a sample of the visible mould using the Scotch tape lift
tape sampling technique explained on
Mold Mart and send it to our mould laboratory
for mould analysis and mould identification. You are very wise to
be concerned about possible health damage to your family. Slow,
continual leaks like under your kitchen seak are perfect
conditions to grow the most dangerous of all
moulds---Stachybotrys which can destroy the brains of your family
members. Even if the mould is not Stachy, any mould in elevated
levels indoors can cause health problems according the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. Most landlords will not
voluntarily spend the funds required for effective mould
inspection, mould testing, and mould remediation. After you get
back mould test results that document the mould health problem
your family is facing in the apartment, you may have to hire an
environmental attorney to persuade your landlord to carry out
the landlord obligation to provide habitable housing for
tenants. Visit:
Mould Lawyer . Make sure your landlord does the
mould removal properly and safely by learning all of the steps
required for effective mould remediation at:
Mould Removal. If you
cannot get your landlord to take care of the problem properly,
you may need to move as soon as possible to a mould safe place
for your family.
[March
15, 2003]
Q. In our building in West
Hollywood, we all have mould in our apartments (bathroom, carpet, kitchen,
etc...). I have been living there for 4 years and I keep cleaning but
3 days later it comes back. I didn't know anything about mould toxicity until
my neighbor gave me some lecture. I just noticed that we all have (my
daughter , my boyfriend and I) the symptoms associated with mould
contamination. My daughter is always sick. She coughs a lot, she gets ear
infection, congested nose, nausea, headaches etc... My boyfriend is getting
more and more asthma attacks and besides all the above symptoms myself I
have my eyes always watery and a blurred vision. I am getting worried and
even if I clean which takes me approximately 5 hours of strenuous work, it
keeps coming back. I keep calling the maintenance because the wall of the
bathroom keeps crumbling because of a leak and every time, they just plaster
the wall. One week later, the water stain reappears on the wall and slowly
starts to crumble. Lately, we have an unbearable smell coming from the patio
I think it is a broken pipe. I would like to know if the landlord is
responsible for the decontamination of his building because I heard it was
expensive.
A. Under most states' laws, residential landlords owe a duty to their tenants
to provide habitable housing. Living in mould infestation is certainly not
living in habitable housing. You can call your local city building inspector
and ask him or her to check out your apartment for building code violations
like mould infestation. You can also hire a mould lawyer to demand of your
landlord immediate professional and safe mould remediation. Visit:
Mould Lawyer.
You can also do your own mould testing to document the existence of a mould
contamination problem to help either the building inspector or your lawyer
to take action against the landlord. Visit:
Mold Mart.
Because most landlords will not honor
their duty to provide habitable housing when there is mould present in the
apartment, your safest course of action to protect your family's health is
to move out immediately to a mould safe place to live while the building
inspector and/or lawyer go after the landlord. If the apartment is mould remediated, you would have to move anyway because you cannot safely be in
the apartment while the mould is being removed. To learn what is required in
effective mould remediation, please visit:
Mould Removal.
>>
Read more on Frequently
Asked Mould Questions. |
